Role of Nutrient Diet

 

Food as energy

To be successful as an athlete, your body must be continuously supplied with food energy, called calories. If calorie intake exceeds needs, you’ll gain weight and body fat, which will make you feel heavy, play slower, and increase your risk for injury. If calorie intake does not meet demands, you won’t be able to maintain your muscle mass and speed, and your recovery will be slow and incomplete.
The number of calories needed to maintain a certain weight varies greatly among individuals. For example, a 220-pound high school fullback who is still growing would need between 4,000 and 5,000 calories a day in-season. His 45-year-old, 140-pound mom, whose only exercise is cheering loudly during football games, would need less than half her son’s amount of calories.
There are four basic reasons why nutrition is important for athletes:

• As an energy source
• For building lean muscle mass
• To achieve ideal body composition
• To aid in staying healthy and reducing injuries.

As a serious athlete, you are asking your body to do a lot. Like a race car needs the correct type of fuel to maximize its effectiveness, so does an athlete. You need to understand and think about what you are putting in your body if you want it to reach optimal performance

Carbohydrates are king

For all athletes, including football players, fueling should primarily come from carbohydrates. There is a longstanding myth that football athletes should bulk up by consuming lots of protein, but nothing is further from the truth. While small amounts of protein are essential, carbohydrates are recommended for fueling most of the training during practices and games for all positions.
When athletes don’t have enough carb stores in their bodies, they have glycogen depletion. The consequences are feeling flat, an inability to build muscle, and even depression. Ongoing depletion can also lead to overtraining syndrome.
An ideal dietary intake of carbohydrates for football players is 50% to 60% of total daily caloric intake. Therefore at each meal, about half to two-thirds of your plate should be filled with carbohydrates.

Protein for power

While protein is not an athlete’s primary fuel for training, it is a crucial part of the support system. It’s equivalent to how essential it is to wear your pads and uniform — they offer protection, but don’t play the game for you. Athletes should look to get 10% to 35% of calories from protein.
Protein can be found in chick seen, fish, turkey, red meat, eggs, cheese, milk, and soy products. These foods contain all the essential amino acids, the building blocks of protein. The best protein sources are low-fat, but that can be tricky to find. Meat and dairy often contain fat in large amounts. Therefore, look for lean cuts of meat and low-fat dairy products.

Fewer fats

Most people know that fat is not a good thing in a diet. But it is not quite that simple. Football players do need some fat in their diets. In fact, as much as 35% is okay if the athlete is not overweight, although as little as 20% of one’s diet is also fine.
It also means the athlete is probably not eating enough carbohydrates and protein. For example, if an athlete eats a 1,000-calorie meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes swarming with butter, high-fat biscuits, and gravy, it will contain about 49% fat, 22% protein, and 29% carbs. If, instead, he eats a 1,000-calorie meal of grilled chicken breast with a low-fat BBQ sauce, oven-roasted potatoes, whole-wheat rolls, tossed green salad, and stir-fry vegetables, he’ll be consuming 26% fat, 20% protein, and 54% carbs. So, with the same amount of calories, the athlete increases the ever-important carbohydrates in his diet.

Vitamins & minerals

If players follow the above guidelines of consuming primarily complex carbohydrates along with healthy forms of protein, vitamin and mineral needs are usually met. This is important because a lack of vitamins and minerals impact energy levels, recovery, inflammation, bone strength, and muscle contraction. Deficiencies in minerals such as potassium, magnesium, and calcium can cause cramping and muscle spasms.
While there are about 40 vitamins and minerals that we need daily to perform all healthy body functions, the ones most commonly seen in deficiency are Vitamins A, C, and D, and the minerals potassium, magnesium, and calcium. In addition, during puberty, young men need extra folic acid, calcium, iron, zinc, and Vitamins A, B, C, and E.